Tech Problem: rendered file won't work on streaming sites

[lilly-the-kid.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone,

I ran into a very frustrating problem and I hope someone here can help me.

I rendered a vid as .wmv using Sony Vegas 9 Platiunum. This is what I always use and usually it works just fine. The rendered video is ok, meaning it plays fine in the vlc-player. The file is, however, bigger than these files normally are and - and this is the main problem - it doesn't work on any streaming site I uploaded it to. On Vimeo the playback is very jerky and the vid itself it out of sync. On viddler, the sync is fine, but the picture quality is unbelievably bad, it's pretty much unwatchable. (I had converted the vid from .wmv to .wmv with the flv to many formats converter, because otherwise it wouldn't work well on Vimeo, usually this does the trick and the vid plays fine. In this case, however, there is another problem occurring, one I've never encountered before.)

I tried exporting to different formats and converting to different formats after rendering, but since I don't have any idea why this is happening in the first place, I'm not really making any progress.

The source files are .wmv and .vob. I made vids before which featured these formats and there was no problem with the finished vid.

I don't know what's happening and what I can do. Any help and ideas would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!


ETA: Thank you so much for all your suggestions! The .avi to .mp4 thing worked perfectly, I'm so happy!!! This whole thing provided me with a great opportunity to try new things and learn a bit more about the tech stuff and I'm so grateful for your help, thank you!

Comments

[obrut-mra.livejournal.com]

WMV is bad. Export it in Uncompressed format and encode in MP4 + x264 + AAC set. For example using one click converters:
http://amvnews.ru/index.php?go=Page&id=35
http://amvnews.ru/index.php?go=Page&id=33
or more complicated MeGUI: http://sourceforge.net/projects/megui/

[lilly-the-kid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links, I'll check this out. I know that wmv is not the greatest format, but so far it worked ok which is why I don't know what exactly the problem is. Hopefully uncompressed avi and encoding to mp4 will do the trick. Thanks again!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

I use Vegas also, and while I'm not familiar with the exact issue you've experienced, I can tell you what works for me as far as exporting my vids (which are generally made from .vob files). I never export the compressed file directly out of Vegas - I find that the act of compiling all the clips and rendering the effects/transitions and compressing at the same time causes quality issues, so I only ever output to avi using the same project settings as my source media. For example, if my source was a PAL widescreen DVD, I export as such. This gives a file of around 800MB - 1GB for an average length song, so it's very high quality. Then I take that file and open it in either Mpeg Streamclip or, most often, Handbrake, and use that to create an MP4 file using the H.264 codec (which I think is the default on Handbrake). That comes out at around 50MB but you can fiddle with the settings to adjust. Because all the rendering is already done, all you're doing is compressing the finished item, and the result is a really nice quality compressed file, which you should find works well on most streaming sites. I've just uploaded one to Vimeo that is looking fine - no audio/video sync issues. Hope that helps!

[lilly-the-kid.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for these instructions! I'll give it a try. I'm the kind of person that desperately clings to what she knows and only makes changes when there's no other way :), but maybe this is a good opportunity.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. I am allergic to change. Hence why I bought a Windows laptop to keep vidding with Vegas even though my main computer is a Mac.

[lilly-the-kid.livejournal.com]

Haha, yes, that's the kind of thing I'd do :D "This is the way I know, I love this way, it is my best friend!" :)

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Totally. Plus, I'm too old to learn a new programme. I've been using Vegas for 10 years, I am set in my ways now. If only they'd make it for Mac!

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I for one want you to get this solved so I can see it! :) I'm so bad...

(Oh, adding .vob files are also compressed mpeg files. Just letting you know.)

[lilly-the-kid.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you so much! :) I tried some of the things mentioned here, but I'll have to wait till tomorrow to upload it, because my internet is sooooooooo slow right now... *fingers crossed*

(Thanks for the info! I'm so bad at this tech stuff, I should really learn more about it :) )

[lilly-the-kid.livejournal.com]

Cool, thank you! So far I have tried littleheaven's suggestion and it worked perfectly for viddler. On Vimeo it's just a tiny bit out of sync, but I figure I can just render a slightly out of sync version and put in on Vimeo where the other out of sync thingy will cancel it out. Good thing I still have time, the most important version is up and running :) Yay, festivids!

I'll definitely check out your link as well, as well the other suggestions here, this is the perfect opportunity to get more tech-capable and try new things.

I'm also so excited!!! Maybe I can guess which one/ones is/are yours, though I'm really bad at guessing :D I'll try watching them all this year as well, but like you said, I'm not sure I'll make it.

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

LOL, my Viddler one was out of sync and the Vimeo one was fine. Oh, vidding, why so hard? :o)

[lilly-the-kid.livejournal.com]

Why indeed? I did the cheating thing and moved the audio a tiny bit in Vegas and then vimeo moved it back and now it looks good enough :) But due to the back and forth and one new upload after another I must have forgotten to make the latest version private, so it was public for about an hour... *headdesk* I hope noone saw...

Good luck with yours!